After making a brief appearance in a New Jersey courtroom on Monday, the teen charged with that tore through about 15,300 acres, destroyed a business and forced evacuations last month argued that he wasn't responsible for extinguishing the bonfire that set off the incident.
On Monday, Joseph Kling, 19, told that he had to leave a gathering early on the evening on April 21 where he and a group of friends brought wooden pallets to a remote section of Ocean Township after a friend was injured.
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WATCH HEREWhen he left, Kling argued, others should have been able to extinguish the fire.
"I was the first to leave after my buddy crashed his dirt bike," Kling said outside court on Monday.
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SIGN UP Flanked by his attorney, Joseph Compitello, Kling said he took his injured friend to a nearby hospital that day, but not before he claimed that he took steps to put out the bonfire.
"I kicked dirt on it and everything. I had the flame almost out," he said. "And other people were there."
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He claimed that there were about 16 to 20 people still at the smoldering bonfire at the time he left.
Kling, along with a 17-year-old boy, have been charged arson after a bonfire, constructed with wooden pallets and ignited gasoline ultimately started the Jones Road Wildfire on the night of April 21, police said.
Prosecutors have said that Kling never went back to the site of the bonfire, despite seeing a red glow before the wildfire started.
Compitello argued that his client's comments on what happened that evening have been ignored by prosecutors.
"At this juncture, we have yet to see any evidence that this bonfire, that he was allegedly involved in, even led to this wildfire," Compitello said.
In the area where authorities said the wildfire started from a bonfire are signs advising that fires are prohibited. The ground there, they said, is black and the earth is still scorched.
Along with charges related to the wildfire, Kling and the 17-year-old are also charged with hindering apprehension, as prosecutors have said they gave police false information.
If Kling is convicted of second-degree arson, he could face up to a decade in prison.
